


How About that Dance?

by Sookiestark



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:20:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22067662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sookiestark/pseuds/Sookiestark
Summary: Peggy comes home from work and starts to make dinner. She is interrupted by an unexpected guest.
Relationships: Peggy Carter & Howard Stark, Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers
Kudos: 40





	How About that Dance?

**Author's Note:**

> Ever since I saw Endgame, I wanted to see this - Steve reunite with Peggy. So I wrote it.

Peggy likes her little house on this quiet street in this sleepy town in nowhere. Her mother had hoped she would return to England after the war but she couldn’t. Peggy had blamed her job and the promotion she had been given as the reason she didn’t return. But she knew it was her brother and the hole he left when he was killed by a Nazi bullet and the black and white photo he left on the mantle in her mother’s house.

The house is small but well-kept. She pays a man to come and help her. She knows she should do the work herself but with her increasing duties that Peggy is rarely home. But when she has a day off, her neighbors will see her in old clothes among the bushes and flowers in her yard. However, Peggy is an unfaithful gardener.

As she climbs the porch steps, she checks the mailbox to see if there is any mail in the metal box. Before she opens her front door, she makes a quick glance to make sure the house has not been tampered with and that there are no unwanted guests waiting for her inside. It is both a habit and necessity, She stands quietly, not even breathing, as she checks the perimeter. There is no sign of entry. 

Breathing again, she unlocks her front door and pushes into her house. Peggy loves the way the sunlight falls through the windows of the parlor and the kitchen. Smiling, she stands in by her couch in the early evening summer sun and feels the warmth on her face. Sometimes, it is the simple things that make life so much sweeter. 

Her feet hurt but she is used to that as they can not stand the heels she puts on every day. Peggy wears heels so that she will look professional, so that she will be seen and taken seriously. Most of the time, she wonders if the shoes are working. The heels make sure that she is the height so that the average man will not be able to look down on her. Sometimes, she longs to throw them out a window and never wear them again. There are still subordinates who will comment on her legs as a way to unnerve her. Most learn after the first time they say such comments. 

Peggy tries not to think about the crude statements and whispers that the men she works with say about her. She has heard them call her a bitch in heat, a ball buster, a frigid spinster, a dyke. Peggy does not let her think too much about what they say. 

When she came here, it was to settle. It was to get away from the city and become as anonymous as she could. She wants to heal, to forget, to move on. After all, she is not thirty yet. Peggy would like to have children, a husband, a family. She hopes this quiet sunny place will help heal the war and free the ghost she keeps in a frame on her end table. Walking into her kitchen, Peggy thinks she should get a cat but wonders if she is ready for such a commitment. Would she even have the time to take care of the thing? But she gets lonely here and wishes for the company. Maybe if she had a cat, she wouldn’t work so late. 

Most people don't know of her house, here on the quiet street. Peggy doesn’t have much company. She has learned from the past that friendships often put people she cares for in danger. When she thinks of it, she has only had Howard Stark over. Of course, she is unsure if she ever invited him or if he had just shown up one night with flowers and wine. Howard comes over sometimes. Arriving unannounced, he will laugh at his witty comments as he stands on her porch. Sometimes, she invites him inside. He brings overpriced booze and something he is working on. Occasionally, they will drink into the wee hours of the morning with him telling her he would get her a nicer place in the city among other things. 

Once or twice, he has kissed her. She lets him. Truth be told, Howard Stark is a fine kisser and Peggy is attracted to him. Last time, Stark came he brought red wine from France and chocolate from Belgium. He made her eggs benedict for dinner and they danced. He had spun her around the kitchen as they listened to old songs on the radio. After dinner, they had gone to her living room with her shabby green striped couch. When she slipped her shoes off, Howard captured one of her feet before it hit the floor. She giggled and went to pull away 

"Let me." he said, "Please." 

Something about the way he had said it, slightly pleading, vulnerable with his dark eyes, Peggy had let him rub her feet. With concentration, he had taken his thumb and ran it hard over the bottom of her foot with firm confidence and tenderness. In seconds, Peggy had found herself mouth open, eyes closed, enjoying his ministrations. As he ran his long fingers expertly over her feet, she wondered what other talents he might have with those fingers. Then she wondered how many secretaries had he seduced with this same technique. It had been this thought that had made her open her eyes and pull her foot reluctantly from Stark.

When she had opened her eyes, Howard had kissed her. It had been expertly timed with a skill that made her breathless. It had been the combination of the tenderness and the confidence that she had almost invited him to stay that night but she had seen the picture of Steve on the table and pulled away, saying, "Maybe it is time for you leave..." 

Howard had looked at his hands, almost as if he was trying to solve where her foot had disappeared to, wondering why the kiss had not worked, why he, Howard Stark, was not enough for her? When he looked up at her, he took his hat and jacket, “Peggy, Steve is in the ice. He is not coming back." 

Howard stumbled out her door and she heard his sports car roar away. Sometimes, she regrets him not spending the night. In the bathtub, she wonders what it would be like to feel him above her, his hips square between her legs, his kisses burning her lips. These thoughts always lead back to Steve. She thinks about what it would be like to feel the skin of his body against hers, naked along the length of her, to feel his unskilled kisses against hers, She finds she likes the idea of teaching him more than Howard's expertise.

She is not a silly girl given to fantasy. Steve is lost in the Arctic Circle. His ship went down in the water. She has worked hard to be trusted enough to be given a position where she would be notified if his ship is ever recovered. But Peggy does not know if she ever wants it to be found. After all, without his body, Steve could be out there still, There is the possibility of his return. Peggy is not one given to flights of fancy but this is one dream she holds onto that one day she will look up and see him in the doorway of her screen door.

It is summer and she can hear the neighborhood kids playing ball and riding their bikes. The sun will be setting soon but right now it is one of those perfect June days where everything is sweet. Peggy starts to make herself dinner. She is making herself some spaghetti and red sauce with peppers. One of the girls in the secretary pool at the base has a garden that she keeps with her mother and gave her some vegetables. She pours herself some wine from when Howard came over and pushes the tomatoes in the oil and onions in the pan as the water boils. 

Peggy hears the steps on the front porch and thinks it must be one of the kids who has come to collect an errant ball off her porch, She smiles thinking of children. 

When she hears the knock, Peggy stops. She wonders if it is someone from the base to bring her back to avert some crisis. Maybe it is Howard Stark. She does not want company. But she wipes her hands on the apron she is wearing, turns the gas on the stove off. Slowly, she takes the apron and calls out, “Be right there.” She looks at the heels under the table and with dread realizes she must put them back on. She does not want to be seen without them. They are much a part of her uniform as her gun. It protects her and keeps her safe. 

Peggy reaches down to pick them up and she hears the voice behind her.

“Sorry, I couldn’t wait any longer. Peggy…”

The recognition of his voice makes her drop the shoes. Turning slowly, she sees him, Steve. In front of her, well, alive, in front of her. He is wearing a leather jacket and a pair of old jeans. In his hand, he holds a bouquet of daisies and carnations. 

In a moment, she rushes toward him and he takes her in his arms. There are tears in her eyes and she thinks there are a thousand questions but as his strong arms encircle her and his lips touch hers. Peggy thinks they have the rest of their lives to figure out the answers. 

He pulls away and smiles that All-American smile, and whispers, “How about that dance?”


End file.
